P E R S P E C T I V E

punjab
CEO Badal?
In his second term as Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Badal says it’s time for his next dream — fetching big investment. Will he be able to overcome the challenges the state could not in the past five years?
By Ruchika M Khanna
Six months into his second tenure as Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal is all set to hard sell Punjab as the best investment destination. Firmly in the saddle as head of the newly created investment promotion department, he is keen on attracting investment in the IT sector, manufacturing, education, infrastructure, power and aviation.

punjab
CEO Badal?
In his second term as Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Badal says it’s time for his next dream — fetching big investment. Will he be able to overcome the challenges the state could not in the past five years?
By Ruchika M Khanna

Six months into his second tenure as Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal is all set to hard sell Punjab as the best investment destination. Firmly in the saddle as head of the newly created investment promotion department, he is keen on attracting investment in the IT sector, manufacturing, education, infrastructure, power and aviation.

And aiming for quick results, Sukhbir Badal is not looking at support from the state’s “babus”. Rather, it is the well-heeled business honchos who are now helping him formulate an action plan to draw investment to the “debt-ridden” state. He has formed special sub-committees, each headed by a prominent industry leader from the respective field, to suggest ways to attract investment.

“The actual players in the field know what is required and can suggest how we can go about it. I chair a meeting of these sub-committees in Delhi every month, and we are thrashing out the best way to bring in investment. At present, we are assessing the current policy of attracting investment in each of these sectors, and how we can get more with private participation,” he says.

Setting targets

Running the affairs of the state like an astute businessman, Sukhbir is now setting targets for each department to help in the economic revival of the state. A time-bound road map is laid out for each department, and he is personally assessing their performance towards reaching the targets.

Much to the chagrin of a lot of top officials, pressured to deliver results, Sukhbir means business. They often complain that Badal Junior has started running the affairs of the state like a “lala ki dukan”. To this, Sukhbir says: “Gone are the days when you could relax after being voted to power. I believe in running the state like a corporation, where results have to be shown to the shareholders, in this case, the public.

How real?

Sukhbir’s critics and political opponents often put down the enthusiasm on creating world-class infrastructure as mere “lip service”. In the last tenure of the Akali- BJP government (2007-12), though 96 mega projects worth Rs 51905.24 crore were approved, the actual investment that came in the state was Rs 9,673.68 crore.

With the state having a huge debt burden of Rs 87,518 crore, its ever-growing revenue deficit, and its huge salary and pension bills, Punjab has little resource to spare for creating such infrastructure. Moreover, industrial investors have not expressed much enthusiasm in investing in the state in the past couple of years. The inherent problems in the state – poor power supply, being surrounded by tax exempt hill states, which have attracted industry in droves, high cost of land, lack of trained manpower and a locational disadvantage (Punjab is located far away from the ports) – have failed to attract the industry.

The only major industrial investment has been the commissioning of the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bathinda, but no heavy industry has set foot in the state during the past several decades. Though the first tenure of the Akali-BJP government saw a lot of talk of ushering in a new industrial policy, with a single window clearance and deemed approval policy, these initiatives have not taken off. The poor fiscal condition of the state has made it impossible for the government to offer any major fiscal concessions, as are being offered by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, and emerging states like MP and Bihar.

Sukhbir, however, remains unfazed. He says that he has set a target to get investment proposals worth Rs 1 lakh crore initially, and with the sanctioning of several expressways, this investment will come only in the road infrastructure sector. “For getting investors to Punjab,” he says, “money is not a problem. One just needs ideas to generate resources for creating infrastructure. When we took over in 2007, I promised to get state-of-the-art expressways and change the road infrastructure. There was skepticism all around, be it political opponents, bureaucrats or the media. But I delivered, and will do so now,” he says.

“The basic concept will be to ask private players to invest in creating infrastructure and maintaining it for 10-15 years. This will ensure that the best infrastructure is set up. We will also work on changing the existing policies pertaining to the industry or education, and make it suitable to the needs of the investors. That is why we are involving specialists from each of these sectors, right from the conceptualisation stage,” he says.

“We have a Rs 3,000-crore corpus for the urban development plan. The state will chip in, but each department will also generate its own resources,” he says, adding that financial management for putting his plans into action has already been undertaken, and the money is in the state’s coffers.

Sukhbir says that while they are working on drafting the best industrial policy, he is certain that with the opening of the trade route to Pakistan via the Wagah border, and with the power and road infrastructure created by his government, industry will flock to the state.

Industrial corridors

“There have been threats of units moving out of Punjab to Gujarat and other states. But we have already addressed the issue of power, aiming to be power surplus, and we are now in the process of creating industrial corridors in the Kandi area, Bathinda and Dera Bassi, where land will be offered at much cheaper rates. With four-laned roads connecting these corridors to nearby towns and cities, the industry will benefit in a big way,” he says. In spite of the huge debt burden on Punjab, the government is “firmly in control” of the state’s finances, thus winning over the trust of investors.

haryana
CBI has its case, Chautala his voter
Three indictments against him notwithstanding, the INLD chief’s political chips are unaffected. It is work done for ‘his people’ that matters more
By Naveen S Garewal

The indictment of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala and his chosen coterie of “babus” by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has yet again revealed the harsh reality about the misuse of authority by politicians and bureaucrats in Haryana. Yet, the Haryana Civil Service (HCS) recruitment scam is only being seen as “just another act of wrongdoing”, and may not prove to be a development that alters the political fortunes of the party.

The INLD has chosen to keep mum over the indictment and shrugs it off saying, “The CBI is a tool in the hands of the Congress to browbeat the Opposition.” This, despite the fact that the INLD has faced a series of charges of “highhandedness” in obliging “favourites” during its last regime.

The party would like to call the latest CBI action as no more than a sequel to the CBI probe already being faced by the Chautalas on charges of accumulating “disproportionate assets” and the teacher (JBT) recruitment scam currently pending in the Supreme Court, wherein a senior bureaucrat has accused the INLD chief of forcing him to change merit lists and replace those with names of candidates he allegedly wanted to favour.

Formidable opposition

The CBI has given a fillip to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, but nothing that may alter the politics in the state. It could have been a major setback to the INLD, but the party continues to be a formidable opposition with 30 legislators of its own and one from the alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal.

The INLD has also launched a massive show of strength by holding rallies and protest demonstrations. At the same time, it proved its mettle in the just-concluded Monsoon Session of the Assembly, where it forced the government on the back foot over the arrest of Gopal Kanda, who had to resign as Home Minister.

The charges against Chautala also coincide with the completion of the Hooda government’s three years in power. The obvious comparison being drawn in the state is Congress rule versus the previous government’s work. Unfortunately for the Haryana Chief Minister, the news is not good. There is a growing impression that Hooda is slowly losing the grip on administration, with bureaucrats calling the shots. His decisions are often not implemented and at times overruled by the officialdom.

Voter unconcerned

Another reason why Chautala can weather the HCS recruitment charges is that the man in the street views it only as a scam that pertains to “high-ups”. The common man is more concerned about recruitment of conductors and constables; HCS recruitment means nothing more than bad press for the “wrongdoers”, whoever they be. People are not going to take to the roads or hold protest demonstrations, as the HCS recruitment does not affect the masses.

What has also weakened the Congress attack on the INLD-led government’s “misdeeds” is the recent High Court ruling that quashed the appointment of 1,983 Physical Training Instructors (PTIs) by the Hooda government in 2010. To the masses, it just proved that anyone coming to power does the same thing. So, Chautala’s “scam” does not seem particularly “evil”.

The INLD also takes strength from the knowledge that the voters who gave the INLD-SAD alliance 31 seats in the House of 90, are still firmly with it. The Congress has not been able to make any dent in the INLD vote bank.

Cong unable to cash in

The current political environment vis-a-vis other parties in the state goes against the ruling Congress, which works for Chautala. The Congress in Haryana, as in neighbouring states, is in a state of disarray. The issue of appointing a Haryana Pradesh Congress president is yet to be resolved. Phool Chand Mulana resigned from the post after the party’s defeat in the Hisar Lok Sabha byelection a year ago, owning moral responsibility. The party high command neither accepted his resignation nor rejected it. But Mulana has ceased to function, throwing the party’s organisational machinery in chaos. In the Hisar byelection, Congress nominee Jai Prakash had been pushed to the third slot, losing even his deposit. HJC-BJP candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi won the seat, defeating his nearest rival Ajay Chautala (INLD) by 6,335 votes.

A third political alliance that has emerged in Haryana is that of the Haryana Janhit Party (HJP), led by Bishnoi, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This tie-up can throw up many surprises. At the same time, many senior politicians in Haryana are maintaining their distance from it, waiting to see how things work out.

There are estimated to be around 40 former legislators and ministers who lost on the Congress ticket. All of them have the potential of joining the new alliance. The HJP was formed by former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, himself a staunch Congressman till he parted ways to form the new party as he was denied the chief-ministerial berth after the 2004 Assembly elections. The Congress chose Hooda over Bhajan Lal. Congress rebels could thus help the alliance alter the political equations in the state, and throw a few surprises in the next election.

Caste-ing it right

What ultimately dominates politics in Haryana is the caste factor. Among the 36 castes said to be there, Jats are the dominant community, with about 27 per cent of the votes. The remaining 35 communities include the Brahmins, ‘Punjabis’, SC/BC, and Ahirs/Yadavs. Barring Bhajan Lal, who called him a non-Jat leader, the majority of those who have held the reins of power have been Jat leaders, whether it was Chaudhary Devi Lal, Chautala or Hooda.

While the HJP-BJP alliance would hope to ride the tide on the non-Jat vote, Chautala — more than Hooda — would bank on the Jat votes.

Politicians in Haryana have learnt that it is not what you do that matters, but what you do for your community that matters. Incidents like the HCS, JBT or PTI recruitment scams could keep popping up, without causing much change in the political lay of the land. It is the caste and not the deed that continues to form governments or keep politicians out of power. No wonder, there has not been a single government in Haryana in recent times that has not faced a job scam.

 

The cases 2012: CBI recommended registration of cases against Chautala and several top officers for recommending ineligible officials for upgrade as Class-I officers in the HAS during his stint as CM. status: Pending in the Supreme Court. 2009: CBI chargesheeted Chautala’s sons Abhay and Ajay and asked the state Assembly Speaker to charge the father as well in a disproportionate assets case. status: Pending in the Supreme Court. 1999-2000: CBI case against Chautala, Ajay, two IAS officers and 56 others on charge of recruiting 1,577 teachers on forged documents during INLD govt. status: IAS officer has accused Chautalas of misusing authority; case in Supreme Court.